Two posts at https://spaceweather.com … are interesting. On January 28th we have the Sun near spotless but on the 30th a hole in the Sun’s atmosphere opened up and a day later released an earth bound burst of plasma [the solar wind].
On the 28th it reports on polar stratospheric clouds. Or stratospheric clouds over the poles. It asks – is a cold spell of climate on the way? Normally, the stratosphere has no clouds whatsoever. When temperatures, up there, drop to minus 85 C, water molecules form crystals and high altitude sunlight then creates a blossom of pastel colour. According to the NASA MERRA2 climate model, temperatures in the polar stratosphere are about to drop to their lowest since 1978. The year before the Callaghan government fell as a result of union unrest and endless strikes. Was there a connection between the two? Nothing like a power cut in cold weather. Later, we are told, this may go on to create a major outbreak of stratospheric clouds. I wonder what the coronal hole ejection event will do to that idea?
On the 30th, we have a warning from tree rings. Solar storms can be recorded in data gleaned from tree rings. What is being referred to, essentially, areMiyake events. These are named after a Japanese scientist who was first to spot them, back in 2012. He dated it to 774/5AD. It involved a 12 per cent jump in radio carbon, C14, in the atmosphere. Until then the mantra was that injections of C14 were nothing impressive and the idea increases came gradually, as in a uniformitarian timescale, ruled the roost. C14 is created by cosmic radiation, we are told, and clearly, contrary to perceived wisdom, incoming solar radiation can leap up in a single year. The event at 774AD was 20 times greater than ordinary fluctuations in cosmic rays. Later, the same spike was found not just in Jpanese trees but in tree rings in Germany, Russia, the US, Finland and New Zealands. Definitely a global phneomenon. Most researchers think it was a solar storm – a really big one. Ten times greater than the Carrington Event in 1859. However, since 2012 we now have a number of other Miyake events gleaned from tree rings. In AD993 for example, and 663/4BC, and other more ancient events.
Miyake suggested at the time the Earth may have travelled through the coma of a comet in order to account for such a large influx of C14. That was quickly quashed and has not been mentioned since. It is also unlikely if the Earth has witnessed a number of these inputs of cosmic rays – and it is thought that over the next few years, many more will be located within the Holocene. Not only that but for every Miyake event now recognised, researchers have found a signal in ice cores too. That puts to bed any idea ice cores are unreliable, as Velikovskians, at one time, were fond of proclaiming. Baillie proved their connection with the volcanic signature in the 540s, as outlined in one of his talks at an SIS speaker meeting. Lately, slagging off ice cores has gone very quiet and recognising that they do run parallel into the Iron Age, and earlier, is evidence hard to dismiss. It puts the arguments of Euan MacKie, made in Pensee and SIS Review back on the agenda.
Update on the CME. Apparently, it has just missed Earth and so, no burst of energy into our planet’s system. February st at https://spaceweather.com …